A New Spin On NeverNeverLand
by Talia Falcon
Summary: New chapter up! Yay. Still a very different PP fic, and you must read. Meet Ravven the griffon, and the sybil.
1. In The Real World

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!  
  
A very odd Peter Pan fanfic. I've always loved Peter – thought I'd put a new spin on NeverNeverLand. No mermaids, pirates that have actual personalities, a very strange tribe of Indians, only a few Lost Boys. Pan and the boys are older (14 or so). The croc is still around. Lots of mythical creatures, dragons, griffons, unicorns, etc., and as usual I do not own either "Peter Pan" or "Dinotopia," by James Gurney. (I was watching Dinotopia and the book was nearby, so…)  
  
Anja opened the door to her small attic bedroom, entered, and closed the door, softly. She dumped her backpack on the bed with its dark green coverlet and sat down herself. The rain poured down outside her double- paned, circular window, set high in the wall, and pattered off the skylight. The walls made an interesting contrast to the wet world outside with their cheery yellow paint, which had definitely not been her first choice for paint color. She hadn't really had a say; the room had come like that when she'd come to this foster mother.  
  
She wore an assortment of clothes found in thrift shops; a dusty-looking, sage-green overshirt with the cuff buttons missing, jean overalls a bit too long, and a white shirt underneath. Worn sneakers were on her feet, but she pulled them off as she sat down, showing white socks. Her brown hair, with its faint golden highlights, was in a short ponytail; loose, it just touched her shoulders. Freckles were spattered across her nose, and she was a bit shorter than average, built stocky and solid.  
  
Anja groaned in annoyance, slumping back on the bed, and hit the play on her CD player, then yelped in pain when her foster-brother's music blasted out of it. "Damn him…" she growled, hitting the eject button. She stalked out the door and threw the disc into his room, then went back to hers. Anja put one of her discs in, and lay back again on the bed, an arm over her eyes.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She woke up several hours later. The rain had stopped and the sun was just setting. Anja sat up and opened the window; the air outside was cool and moist. She rested her arms on the sill and her chin on her arms, then sighed softly. She glimpsed the spark of a star in the already darkening sky – but it seemed to be moving. Anja watched it dart around and stared at it. Then she laughed and shook her head. She'd been reading too many tales…  
  
The cool air on her face was very soothing, and Anja soon managed to doze off, leaning on the sill. When she woke, she found someone watching her.  
  
"Gods…" she whispered, as the green clad boy cocked his head at her and grinned a wild, reckless grin. "H'lo," he said cheerfully. "My name's Pan. What's yours?"  
  
"Anja. Why?"  
  
"No reason. Do you know stories?"  
  
"Of…course. If you're Peter Pan, you must know a fair amount of stories already. Um…how about Dinotopia?" She pulled a green-bound book off her shelf and opened it to the first page. Pan looked over her shoulder. "I can't read. Read to me?"  
  
"Alright… 'How I Discovered The Sketchbook. Nearly a year ago has gone by since I first made the discovery. I was tracking down some information on China when my eye fell upon a curious old leather-bound sketchbook…'"  
  
An hour later, she was halfway through the book and her voice was sore. Peter was sitting on the bed, bright-eyed and eager for more, and his face fell when she closed the book. "Read me some more…"  
  
Anja shook her head, then said, "If you come back tomorrow night, I will."  
  
Pan perked up almost immediately and nodded. He bowed slightly to her and was out the window in a flash. Anja stared after him, then rolled her eyes and changed into her pajamas. A few moments later, she was asleep again. 


	2. In NeverNeverLand

To Witch of the Snitch – no Wendy. I never liked Wendy. Pppth. Anyway, this is in whatever century we're in now. (You know, 2002…) Wendy is long dead and gone. Sorry. Both Anja (said either Ahn-ja or Ahn-ya. Not sure.) and Pan are around fourteen.  
  
To RubyFaerie – thank you and I will.  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
DISCLAIMER # 2:  
  
I don't own my dear Peter, any Mercedes Lackey books I mention, any Tamora Pierce books I mention, any Diane Duane books I mention, any Vivian Vande Velde books I mention, or Dinotopia. I wish I did. *Sigh* Sean – yes, it is me, really. That's what I was wearing. Dragon…dear, it's dumb, I know. Don't hurt me…  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
Anja was woken at nearly dawn by a light touch on her shoulder. She looked up into gray-green eyes, and yelped. Peter put a hand over her mouth and shook his head. Then he thrust a sack at her. "The Lost Boys want you t' come and meet them. And tell 'em stories. The last to tell us stories was Wendy's daughter, an' we haven't seen her in a long while. Please?"  
  
Oh lords…she thought. He hasn't changed since Peter Pan was written.  
  
She nodded and took the sack, then began stuffing it with books. She grabbed both Dinotopia books off the shelf, the entire Mercedes Lackey series, all the Tamora Pierce books, and several other series by several other authors. He waited on the sill, patiently. As she finished, he grabbed at her hand.  
  
"Now," he said. "All y' have to do is – "  
  
"Think happy thoughts. Tell me something I *don't* know." Happy thoughts were not an easy thing for her to dredge up. Finally, her mind snatched at one – the horses. The grullo mare with the zebra-striped legs, the dapple- gray gelding. (Yes, grullo is a horse color.) All she had to do was think of their soft noses against her hand, the warm, animal scent of their hide, their easy grace. Anja sneezed suddenly as Pan blew a golden dust onto her, and all at once, she was in the air  
  
She yelped in delight, twirled experimentally, then let herself float up to the ceiling. She made a satisfied noise, and the boy laughed.  
  
"Well, come along!" he cried. "You're wasting time!"  
  
As they flew – flew! – out of the window, the old words, the directions, came back to Anja.  
  
*Second star to the right, and straight on 'till morning…*  
  
~~~  
  
And, strangely enough, time seemed to slow, delaying morning, giving them enough time to get to NeverNeverLand. It was just as Anja had always pictured it. The waters sparkled like diamonds – the forest below was lush and rich – but what in hell was that? An enormous black and silver shape was heading towards them at great speed. Peter paused in the air – unlike Wendy, John, and Michael, she could replicate this exactly – and called back to her, "'Tis the Sibyl!* She's come to greet us."  
  
The great shape passed below and then above them, too fast to discern what it was. Then, like a great hawk, silver-membraned wings snapped out to catch at the air, and the dragon, for dragon the beast was, stood nearly still in the air. She regarded them with catlike sapphire eyes that held a great intelligence. Her wings fanned the air slowly, the breeze they created blowing back Anja's hair. Pan darted up to the dragon and lay a hand on its great shoulder. It gave a noise, not unlike a chuckle, in the back of its throat, then blinked at Anja.  
  
*Perhaps a dragon is an uncommon sight for thee? 'Twould not be the first time. I am Icewind, Never Land's one and only sibyl. Thy name, child?*  
  
"Anja."  
  
*It is well.*  
  
~~~~~~~  
  
Coming next time…is it love? You tell me – please! And I need names for the griffon and for the Lost Boys. I cannot believe you people like this! It's really BAD! Thanks anyways for liking it!  
  
*Sibyl – a seer  
  
~TalFal~ 


	3. In The Tree

TO ALL WHO LIKE THIS STORY - all right, people; I know someone's stolen your brains, now all you have to do is tell me who. I will recover the stolen brains and see if it makes any difference in how much you like this story. Thanks for liking the sibyl; I like her too. And now onto chapter three, and yes I know they're too short! Signed, Your beloved Talia ~~~ Anja only just managed to get to the bed Peter had provided for her, when she collapsed into sleep. She dreamed deeply and vividly, which was, in truth, the effect Never Land had on many people. Pan dozed nearby, in a rope hammock slung from one side of the hollow tree to another. In the corner, a very large, but quite tame wolf slept, her ears pricked for the slightest disturbance. Her name had been given as Bince; she was the classic dusty gray, with yellow-gold eyes. Her dreams slid into each other, whispering with silent, and yet not silent, voices. She had no idea of the tears that Peter glimpsed on her cheeks when he heard her cry out in the darkness of the night. He spent several long moments watching her afterwards, watching the play of light and shadow across her features. Then he lay his head back down with a sigh. ~~~ The sun in her eyes woke Anja, and she sat up slowly, remembering where she was. Bince saw that she was awake, and barked a short greeting before she returned to her pacing. The girl moved slowly, rummaging in the chest at the bottom of the bed for the clothes she knew Peter had said would be there. She found a green tunic and a pair of tan, calf-length breeches, but no shoes. A moment later, a wiry, red-haired boy swung down from a higher level of the tree and grinned at her. "I'm Muilyn. Peter say's you're Anja?" "That's right, yes. How many Lost Boys are somewhere around here? Used to be six or seven - " "I think we're five main, including Pan. That's me, Marc, Jaksi, and Rulaaj. Pan left breakfast out, but he didn't know what you liked. So there's honey, flatbread, fruit, cheese." "Coffee?" "Say what? There's something Pan calls hot chocolate, but." "Never mind, forget I said anything. Lead on." Anja sighed, rubbing the sleep out of her still-blurry eyes. Muilyn seemed much too awake for so early an hour. The red-haired youth gave a high, piercing whistle, and a few moments later, a kestrel came out of nowhere to perch on a branch. It cocked its head inquiringly, and Muilyn said, slowly and clearly, "Xiza, listen. Go find Peter. Tell him Anja's up. Understand?" The bird bobbed her head and took wing, and Muilyn shook his own head in amusement. "Xiza's smart, but she's not human. Pan'll get the general idea of what I just told her, though. C'mon and eat." ~~~~~~~~~~~~ There was a slender boy with vaguely Indian features seated at the rough table on the ground level of the enormous tree. He looked up at them with a grin, and introduced himself as Rulaaj. There was a fox sitting on the table in front of him, whining softly as the young man bandaged a long gash on its foreleg. Rulaaj finished quickly, then said, "There you are, Teek. Stop getting yourself into so many scrapes! I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" "Anja. Where's the breakfast?" "I moved it so Teek couldn't get at it. 'Tis over on that other table. The younger boys have been at it already, so it's a bit depleted. Thank the gods that they don't all live in this tree. Pan takes in *far* too many nowadays. We've been here almost since the beginning. There's one boy who has been here, for everything. His name is Tootles, I think." "That's very possible," said Muilyn thoughtfully as he filled one of the rough wooden plates with everything on the table that was even remotely sweet. "That's what he tells us, and he hasn't the imagination to lie that well." "Jaksssi? Is Jaksssi in therrre?" "No, Ravven, she's not. Come on in, though. There's flatbread and honey, if you want it. Can you still fit through the door?" "Of courrsse I can, fool. Do you know wherre ssshe iss?" A huge, black- feathered head and torso appeared through the opening, the huge green-gold eyes bright with intelligence. Anja felt her breath catch. A griffon.the beak opened and the creature spoke again in a breathy voice. "And wherre'ss that honey?" "Who, Jaksi? I have no idea. It's on the table. Ravven, this is Anja, Pan's newest foundling. Anja, this is Ravven Wingstretch, our resident scholar and genius. She brought us books, Rav!" "You flatterrr me, Muilyn. And by the way, if you sssee the little wrrretch, tell herr I'm waiting.verrry pleassant to meet you, Anja." The griffon snatched a piece of bread and honey on her way out, leaning Rulaaj laughing in her wake. As soon as he got control of himself, he called, "Come on out, Jek, and consider yourself lucky she didn't hear you." A tall, lithe girl swung down off the huge root she'd apparently been stretched out on, hidden from where the griffon's immeadiate line of sight had been. She swept her short, dark hair out of deep blue eyes, and smiled at Anja. "Jaksi. Call me Jek. Ravven wants to teach me something, and I have no desire to learn. Do you know what it's like to be one female among twoscore boys?" The sudden change of topic startled Anja. "It's a living hell, that's what it is." "Jek, cool it. Let her eat. Have you had breakfast?" the voice was laughing, and came from somewhere above. Anja glanced up to see Peter peering in a broken window at her, and she waved. "No, I haven't. Come on down, why don't you?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Like it? I do. And I like Jek. Yers, TalFal 


End file.
